Reviving regional train traffic in Southwest Finland: A practical example for Europe’s regions
Reactivating regional train networks in Southwest Finland
Within the SCALE-UP project, the Regional Council of Southwest Finland is taking measures to develop sustainable travel chains across the entire region beyond the city centre of the Turku Urban Node. A multimodal travel chain consists of several different ways of mobility during one journey – for example driving by car to the train station, then by train to another city and walking, cycling or by local public transport to the destination. Rail transport is an essential element of an efficient travel chain, highlighting the importance of regional train services in the Southwest Finland region to close this gap.
In addition, the municipalities, which are connected to the regional rail network need to decide, how the regional train services will be organized:
Who will be responsible for planning the services?
How will the necessary procurement be handled?
How will this be financed and how will the costs be shared?
Planned regional trainline itinerary in Southwest Finland
To address these questions, a report was published as part of the SCALE-UP project to examine different organization models for the regional rail transport in Southwest Finland. The report includes an assessment of the potential organizational models, based on benchmarking functioning models both in Finland and internationally and assessing the advantages and challenges of the models presented. The other SCALE-UP Urban Node regions of Madrid and Antwerp and their public transport systems were also examined.
The report identified both short-term and longer-term paths for the organization of regional rail transport. In the short term two possible options were presented:
Firstly, a market-based model may start up the train services in the region, which is organized by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. In a second step, a market-based service can be started when the operator has the necessary licenses and equipment, and when the rail conditions and the related infrastructure allow it – both the train stations and the rail network need to be improved before the trains are able to operate in the region. In such cases the operator would oversee the decision-making regarding ticketing and service levels. Of course, the municipalities would have a chance to negotiate with the operator about these issues.
In the second short-term option, the municipalities would form a consortium to negotiate on transport procurement with the Ministry of Transport and Communications to define the level of service and cost-sharing agreed in advance by the municipalities, since the Ministry of Transport and Communications is currently the only authority with a legal permission to tender train services in Finland.
The third, longer-term option would require a change of law, by which the tendering of the train services could be authorized on the regional level. Even though this type of change of law is not in process at the moment, this may become a reality in the future, if and when local train services will be started up in other regions as well. The public transport authority in Southwest Finland could for example be the Regional Council of Southwest Finland, The Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Southwest Finland or an entirely new consortium of municipalities established purely for the needs of regional train.
However, even with the shorter-term organizational models, the launch of rail transport in Southwest Finland will not happen overnight – at shortest it will take years to get things going. SCALE-UP aims at tackling these multi-level governance and authority challenges and develop cooperative models for concrete challenges but also going beyond the project duration. Whichever approach will finally be selected, it can serve as an inspiration and base for other similar regions across Finland and the wider EU.
The report and the summary were originally published in Finnish language and are available on the website of the Regional Council of Southwest Finland.
Author: Marja Tommola (Valonia, Regional Council of Southwest Finland)